RACIAL EQUITY
A new analysis hones in on state unemployment rates by race and ethnicity in the U.S. According to the study, while unemployment rates are down throughout most of the U.S., “only a handful of states have seen meaningful improvement in the labor market for African-American and Latino workers.” Virginia’s black unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation at 6.7 percent. (WSJ, 2/23)

Even in Virginia, the unemployment rate for black workers was twice as high as it was for white workers. The largest gaps in black and white unemployment were in the District of Columbia, where the black unemployment rate was 5.4 times that of white workers, and in Michigan, where the rate was 3.4 times higher, the report found. The smallest gap was in New Jersey, where the rate was 1.5 times higher.

– On Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27, the Reston Community Center, in association with the Equitable Growth Profile Advisory Group of Fairfax County, invites you to hear Professor john a. powell, director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and professor of law and African American Studies & Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor powell will present, “Racing To Justice: Understanding Social Equity,” in two sessions that are open to the public and free of charge with pre-registration. Click here to learn more.

Related: Professor john a. powell kicked off WRAG’s, “Putting Racism on the Table”learning series last month, with a thoughtful discussion on structural racism.

VIRGINIA
– In Fairfax County, officials are hopeful for the effectiveness of the Diversion First program that launched this year to emphasize treatment in lieu of jail time for low-level nonviolent offenders with mental illnesses. So far, 103 individuals have been diverted into treatment since the program took off on January 1. (Fairfax Times, 2/19)